> Then I went to the exam, and the people waiting outside were all talking about their summer plans. One girl mentioned that she wasn't coming back. She said "I realized that when I start studying two hours before the exam, my heart isn't in it, and I'm not putting in the effort it deserves", which threw me for a loop.

Sounds like a rationalization for quitting to me. It's easy to develop a little nonsensical pride if it provides an excuse for getting out of doing work.

And nonsensical it is. From an idealistic standpoint, refusing to do anything that isn't done perfectly is a step in the WRONG direction. A job done imperfectly is still done, and a job left undone is still undone. The appropriate response would be to *put in* more effort, but of course that is "hard," and some idealistic-sounding platitude -- preferrably one that implies you're a slave to your natural tendencies and have no power over how hard you try at life -- is an easy way to avoid the work.

From a practical standpoint, it's also foolish. Nobody ever hired anybody that dropped out of college because s/he "wasn't putting in the effort it deserves" and so saw the "sense" in quitting.

Almost everybody procrastinates. So what if you put off homework and studying until the last minute, so long as you do well enough? If you do well in your classes, what's the difference? And if you screw up, then that best of all teachers known as experience gets a shot at teaching you not to procrastinate so much next time.